NJ Appellate Law Blog

Commissioner of Education Validly Approved Charter Schools That Include Online Instruction

In re Grant of Charters to Merit Preparatory Charter School and Newark Preparatory Charter School, 435 N.J. Super. 273 (App. Div. 2014). Charter schools are the subject of much controversy....

"Poor Planning" by Impoverished Parent Does Not Constitute Abuse or Neglect of Children

New Jersey Div. of Child Protection & Permanency v. L.W., 435 N.J. Super. 189 (App. Div. 2014). Impoverishment does not equal child neglect. That is the conclusion of this opinion...

Justice Fernandez-Vina's Maiden Opinion

Hersh v. County of Morris, 217 N.J. 236 (2014). It is traditional for a new Justice's first opinion to be a unanimous, relatively uncontroversial one. Yesterday, Justice Fernandez-Vina issued his...

Force Majeure

Hess Corp. v. ENI Petroleum, US, LLC, 435 N.J. Super. 89 (App. Div. 2014). ENI entered into a "Base Contract," a form widely used in the oil industry, under which...

Not All Misstatements About Medical History Disqualify an Applicant for Worker's Compensation Benefits

Bellino v. Verizon Wireless, 435 N.J. Super. 85 (App. Div. 2014). The Workers Compensation Act, N.J.S.A. 34:15-1 to -142 ("the Act"), contains an "anti-fraud" provision in N.J.S.A. 34:15-57.4. Under that...

Receivers, Special Fiscal Agents, and Writs of Execution

New Jersey Realty Concepts v. Mavroudis, 435 N.J. Super. 118 (App. Div. 2014). For over sixty years, it has been the law that "money or other property in the hands...

No Nursing Home Act Violation, and Therefore No Consumer Fraud Act or TCCWNA Violation Either

Manahawkin Convalescent v. O'Neill, 217 N.J. 99 (2014). This comprehensive opinion by Justice Patterson for a unanimous Court ultimately boils down to this: because plaintiff, a nursing home, did not violate the...

The "Colonel" May be Going to the Supreme Court

Prioleau v. Kentucky Fried Chicken, Inc., 434 N.J. Super. 558 (App. Div. 2014). In Arroyo v. Durling Realty, LLC, 443 N.J. Super. 238 (App. Div. 2013), discussed here, Judge Sabatino discussed the "mode of...

Attorneys' Fees Under an Unaccepted Offer of Judgment

Feliciano v. Faldetta, 434 N.J. Super. 543 (App. Div. 2014). Rule 4:58-1 allows a plaintiff to make an offer of judgment. If the defendant does not accept the offer, and...

Protecting the Rights of Service Members, and a Time for Appeal Issue

Newman v. Board of Review, 434 N.J. Super. 493 (App. Div. 2014). This is a case in which plaintiff sought unemployment benefits. The detailed facts of the case are almost not...

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The Second and Third Published Appellate Division Decisions of the Current Term

As September turned to October, the Appellate Division issued its second and third published opinions of the Term. One was a decision by Judge Vinci in a civil appeal. The other ruling, in a criminal appeal, was authored by Judge Perez Friscia....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Did it Violate a Class Action Settlement That Barred Mass Opt-Outs to Allow Opt-Outs From a Marketing Campaign That Solicited Opt-outs?

On Tuesday, September 30, judges on Part G of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Esposito v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless. The case follows from a $100 million nationwide class action settlement that had required class members who decided to exclude themselves from the settlement and potentially pursue their own litigation against Verizon to opt out individually, and barred mass opt-outs. However, Murphy Advocates, LLC, a Colorado law firm conducted a marketing campaign to create a mass opt-out that attracted about 11,000 class members who responded to Murphy that they wished to opt out....

A Pair of New Criminal Appeals for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new cases. Both are criminal appeals. One is from a published opinion of the Appellate Division, while the other is from an unpublished per curiam decision by a three-judge panel....

Can a Plaintiff in a Civil Case Refuse to Testify at Trial After Being Served With a Defense Notice in Lieu of Subpoena and Having Been Ordered to Testify by the Trial Judge? An Anniversary

On this date in 2005, the Supreme Court decided Gonzalez v. Safe & Sound Sec. Corp., 185 N.J. 100 (2005). The case involved a plaintiff who was shot in an apartment building in Atlantic City, which left him paralyzed. He brought a negligence suit against a number of defendants, including Atlantic City Housing & Urban Renewal Associates ("ACHURA"), the owner of the apartment building....